New satellites and space-based technologies have never been easy to test. The purpose of the mission is to make it easy to build and test a new satellite.
It's not wrong to say it's "usb for space" The military has tried several times to create a system like this with the Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA), which became the Modular Open Network ARCHitecture (MONARCH), and the Common Payload. The approach hasn't taken off the way, say, the Cubesat standard.
The goal of Slingshot 1 is to create a standard satellite bus that is easy to use, portable, and reliable, but also meeting all the necessary requirements for security, power, and so on.
[Slingshot] offers more agility and flexibility in satellite development through the use of modular, plug-and-play interfaces. These interfaces leverage open-sourced systems to avoid proprietary lock-ins that may stall development, as well as standardized interfaces for payloads that would not require a customized satellite bus. These interfaces set the power, command, control, telemetry, and mission data that may be required for payloads. Without a set of common standards, these payload-to-satellite bus requirements are driven by varying satellite bus manufacturers. Slingshot eliminates this uncertainty by reducing the number of requirements and complexity in the interface and creating an open payload interface standard called Handle.
The common trap that would be encountered by would-be standard-standardizers will be avoided.
The team decided to base the whole thing on Ethernet since it underpins a lot of networking in the world already.
"Basing the Handle standard on Ethernet builds on the vast ecosystem of hardware and software tools developed for that very common interface, essentially taking the most common terrestrial system standard and migrating it for satellite use." We have tailored the network for low power but still support gigabit per second communications between devices with no custom software development required.
When it was written up for its own purposes, he said it would instantly be recognized and work, and any broadcast data would get to the spaceship without any tuning or tweaking of the software onboard. Because it is an onboard network, the data of the payloads is seen by all the others. Payloads can easily collaborate in real-time, and distributed smart sensor and processor are coupled by the basic architecture.
If you combine this with a power hub that can intelligently supply a variety of needs, and a modular enclosure that makes the whole thing look like the back of a well-organized gaming PC, you have a recipe for plug and play that really makes things easy on the prospective designer.
The setup does not have its outer enclosure.
It is working to reduce interface complexity and support different satellite buses with minimal to zero adaptation required to the interface. Handle was key to a streamlined integration process on Slingshot 1 where we had a wide range of payloads with different requirements and it allowed us to integrate the volume of payloads we did in a satellite about the size of a shoe box.
Sending up a PC case with nothing in it is not enough, it has to be a barebone interface. In order to see if it works, you need stuff attached, and fortunately there are a lot of experiments and capabilities thatAerospace has been saving up.
The core mechanical elements of t.Spoon are made up of the various components. You need a radio downlink that is software defined. There is a machine learning testbed on a satellite. Is there an internet of things protocol? Are theregraphic services?
The view expands to show the parts.
When I talked with the team during a visit to their labs, they talked about how much of what is on Slingshot is unprecedented in some ways, but is more about adapting common terrestrial tasks to the extremely formalized and limited context of a satellite.
A processor and storage are shared by three or four different people. How do you keep their communications safe? The same way you would on the ground, but with limited power and unusual interface of a spacegoing craft. Yes, secure processing and communications in space have been done before, but it is not like there is a plug and play version where you can just click a button.
The camera is mounted on an external device. There is a bit of artificial intelligence in space, but never a setup where you can say, "Oh sure you can add on cloud recognition to your satellite, it'll take up 2 watt, 20 cm and 25 grams." It's set up to watch the satellite itself, looking at lighting conditions, which can affect thermal loads and power handling. Wouldn't it be better to have your own satellite to watch out for hot spots on the solar cells?
As it tests out its many components and experiments, data will be coming in. It may be the beginning of a new era for small satellites.
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